From Hat to Boot

From Hat to Boot

Fearing
Something/Feeling Nothing:

As I begin to write here, the first of
three presidential debates begins in just a few hours. As the political winds
are drifting away from Romney, they are still carrying his deceiving smell. Just
hope that Obama doesn’t get caught up and mired in the stench during the
debate.

Inside the Republican beltway, even
perhaps within the Romney/Ryan campaign, they indeed do feel their grip
slipping away. Leaks to media, whether intentional or not is portraying Romney
as poised to reverse Obama’s momentum by slinging out memorized ‘zingers.’ Ya
know, like Reagan’s folksy mannerism did to Carter during the 1980 presidential
run when he first said the, “There ya go again” comment. That four worded phrase
worked well for Reagan that he used it numerous times more that resonated so
well with Republican politicians that they’ve even incorporated it into their
campaign speeches up to the present.

Fair enough, but this time around in
grasping for zingers instead of truth and specifics, I predict now that the
general public is not going to be sucked into a memorized ‘zinger.’ Of course
the ‘zinger’ route will have to wait a few more hours to detail whether they
appeal or appall the viewing and listening public audience. To be effective,
zingers have to be led into and cannot come from out of the blue to impact. Clever
phrases have to be spontaneous, not rehearsed…and yes they’re best effect is
flung from a folksy character and that for sure, Romney’s personality does not
possess. Even so, with Reagan’s success in the usage of his phrase, he had
major help when George Will stole a copy of Carter’s debate material and handed
it over to Reagan’s campaign to not only assume what he might say in timing countering
zingers, but knew what he was actually going to say. If Obama sticks to facts, the
zingers will be ineffective. Mitt will be getting his moment, we’ll soon see.

With the ineptness of Romney/Ryan stump
speeches in not sticking to specifics or lack of detail in their ever so bold
statements, suggests to me that the public at large won’t be that convincingly
amused in changing the direction of the voting momentum even towards the
Republicans’ favor, much less for Romney.

Romney’s incessant barrage of
flip-flops, even within an hour or two has exasperated Republicans and
flabbergasted the rest. Romney’s constant about faces, along with Ryan’s disingenuous
input are making the two appear as unauthentic distancing conservatives who are
now becoming mitt-mute.

For instance, on 09/19/2012 Romney was
making a speech to a group of elderlies at a retirement community and in it, he
referred that he took it as a compliment that Obama had called him the
‘grandfather of Obamacare’ due to the fact that Obamacare is based on Romney’s
own institution of a healthcare plan for all in the state of Massachusetts. He
made sure that his older audience knew that he signed the healthcare bill into
law in 2006 when he was governor of the state. Immediately, he leaves the
retirees and within an hour begins speaking at Univision’s ‘Meet the
Candidate.’ There, in thinking he has a more conservative audience after he
insisted that he be allowed to bus in his own audience, commences an about face
in bashing Obamacare.

Since the Supreme Court deemed the
Affordable Care Act wholly legal, this rather abrupt change of Romney’s adamant
statement in repealing the whole of Obamacare from day one if he enters the
office of the presidency to keeping main components of the new law, only adds
to the chagrin of his conservative base.

Among many Republican complaints, Erick
Erickson, a CNN conservative contributor tweeted, “This might just be the
moment Romney lost the election.”

In March 2010, when asked on MSNBCs
‘Morning Joe’ whether he believes in universal health coverage, Romney
emphasized, “Look, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have millions and
millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the
emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no
responsibility, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to
pay their own way.”

The above statement was actually a
bolster to his 2007 statement when he considered emergency room (ER) care socialistic.
On the Glenn Beck show he stated, “When they show up at the hospital, they get
care. They get free care paid for by you and me. If that's not a form of
socialism, I don't know what is.”

On ‘Sixty Minutes’ interviewed by Scott
Pelley that aired just this past August, Romney totally contradicts himself
when he touts the ER as an effective and legitimate care. When asked by Pelley
if the government has a responsibility to provide healthcare to the fifty
million uninsured, Romney replies, “Well, we do provide care for people who
don't have insurance....If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their
apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital,
and give them care.”

More than his contradiction, what I
don’t particularly like about Romney’s above statement is the more vivid
glimpses he portrays in being so distanced and out of touch with mainstream
America. It has to do with his choice of word “apartment.”

For his so-called 47%, he describes them
as incapable of home ownership. He could have described the home part as a
house in being owned by the heart attack victim, but no it had to be an
apartment suggesting non ownership.

Romney, a few days earlier on September
14th, attacked Obama’s policies with China and accused the communist
country of unfair trade while being a currency manipulator. This riled Chinese
leaders and on China’s official news agency, Xinhua stated that pushing up the
value of the country’s currency would not do anything “to magically turn the
poor U.S. economic performance around.” It also pointed out that a share of
Romney’s accrued wealth was actually obtained from doing business in China.

These items, along with the 47% speech,
the Libyan knee-jerk reaction and immigration turnabout stances are truly
frustrating conservatives.

Allergic
to the Truth:

The point is that Republicans, who view
and analyze polls as much as anyone else, are feeling a slip with the contest
drifting away. So much so that they are now questioning the legitimacy of the
polls while using Dick Morris, a Republican political consultant as their
soundboard in denigrating poll results.

Morris insists the media is covering up
huge Romney leads and proclaims Romney is actually ahead in key states due to
his claim that undecided voters go against the incumbent. In other words, 100%
of the current voters still undecided at this stage will go to Romney in
Morris’ diluted thinking. Why there are still voters undecided I have no idea,
but Romney is not going to win every one of their votes on a Morris premise.

If that’s not bad enough, Florida
Republican Congressman, Allen West didn’t like the way the polls were showing
him slightly behind or tied with Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy. So he
decided to hire his own Republican polling firm ran by consultant Gene Ulm. Ulm
accommodated West by coming up with a polling result showing West leading
Murphy by a 51 to 44 percentage margin. Also, Ulm gave a statewide Florida lead
to Romney by a 7 point margin, while all other professional polls show Obama
slightly leading Romney. Ulm released no actual internal poll documents; only
memos describing them. So, I guess the Republican mentality is if you don’t
like the accepted polling results, then why not go ahead and just make-up your
own.

In all sincerity, average Republicans
ought to be downright ashamed of their party. In speaking of polling voters,
this Republican voter purging in GOP controlled states is simply disgusting to
the senses, along with attempting to rush it to judgment for this election
cycle. Then they hide behind a pretentious excuse that it is to ensure that
there is no voter fraud in our elections when they cannot come up with one
instance of instigated voter fraud. The minimum costs for these red states in
pursuing all this purging nonsense has cost each state a minimum of over $10
million to thrust into law and implement.

In addition to purging possible Democrat
voters, these red states have also, in Wisconsin shut down DMV centers, where
one registers to vote, in Democrat districts only to reopen them in Republican
districts. In Ohio, attempts to do away with early voting (a traditional time
that minorities vote) by Republicans were thwarted, so the GOPs new tactic is
to limit early voting hours in Democrat leaning counties, while expanding
Republican and wealthy leaning counties’ voting hours to week nights and even
into weekends. Of course Texas would accept NRA ID cards while refusing state
issued college IDs.

As verified by former Florida GOP chair,
Jim Greer, the Florida Republican controlled government was having secret meetings in
trying to find ways in hampering Democrat votes through purging and setting up
police roadblocks one mile from majority minority voting booths. In their
so-called noncitizen purge, if someone’s real name was William in a Democrat
district, but signed off as Bill on his registration, he was purged from the
voter rolls. No inquiries conducted or questions asked.

Now for the crux to all this: While the
Republican National Committee (RNC) is obliging voter purges on one end, they
hired Strategic Allied Consulting, run by Nathan Sproul who is a longtime GOP
consultant, on the other end to register Republican voters in Colorado,
Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia. The Romney campaign also hired
Sproul’s other company, Lincoln Strategy Group for field consulting in gathering
signatures to support the Romney campaign.

Now ya see, Sproul has a shady past. In
the 2004 elections he was caught tampering with Democrat voter registration
forms and voter fraud across multiple states. Both the RNC and the Romney
campaign hired him knowing full well of his past baggage. Sproul is currently
under investigation in Florida for voter fraud in twelve counties for the work
he was doing for the RNC.

Filled out registration forms turned
into election officials by Sproul’s company had a slew of blatant problems from
forged signatures, false addresses, wrong social security numbers, registered
dead folks and even turned in addresses that were gas stations.

Since Sproul has been caught, both the
RNC and Romney campaign have cancelled his services and cut and run distancing
themselves from him. The shame of it all here, none of the GOP new voter ID
laws cannot and would not have caught this egregious voter fraud, for the new
ID laws are only affecting and impacting democrat leaning regions or voters.

Well, I suppose if ya can’t win
honestly, then cheat if you must.

Score:

Anyone who watched the debate last
night, I think we all agree when it comes to performance, impression,
conciseness and delivery…Romney trounced Obama. One was excited, the other
looked tired. One was enthused, the other looked like he didn’t want to be
there. Obama’s low keyed performance was so contrasting to Romney’s upbeat
demeanor that it appeared bizarre and I’m sure creating some anxiety in Obama’s
supporters.

I’ve played around with the Rocky Balboa
strategy that Obama first takes a pounding, but once the opponent has shot off
all his big guns and out of ammo, then in the final rounds (the last two
debates) Obama comes roaring back with a surge of strength in who he really is.
It is fun to play with, but I don’t think this is the case. When momentum is on
your sails’ wind, you don’t change the set-up in midstream; you keep to the
wind.

As far as performance and delivery
Romney wins soundly. As far as his stellar performance in delivering factual
comment, he loses miserably. Romney was all rhetoric with baseless statements.
In other words, his grand performance proves that he is a master in delivering
lies with literally many tongue swipes.

In virtually every topic discussed,
Romney flat out lied. I’ve counted thirty-one with twelve as blatant and the
rest as misconstrued or misleading distortions. From his deceiving remarks of
“Obamacare is a job killer,” and “twenty million Americans will lose their
insurance,” to “you never balance the budget by raising taxes,” Romney misspoke
to the American audience. His persistence even carried into the debate in
insisting Democrat Senator Ron Wyden coauthored Ryan’s budget bill in attempts
to make it appear as bipartisan. Wyden adamantly denies this while even voting
against the bill when it reached the senate floor.

I’m going to list five of Romney’s
outright lies from the thirty-one counted, but first to be fair, Obama stretched
the truth three times and following, I’ll list one.

Obama is basing this information on a
2011 Kaiser Foundation survey of employer health plans. In the survey, it was
found that 31% of workers with health insurance plans had their plans changed
by employers to accommodate preventive services in conforming to the new health
reforms. This equates to 173 million Americans under age sixty-five in having
private health insurance. According to Census numbers ~54 million folks
received expanded preventive coverage. Here’s the but…but it’s not clear if all
the employers did change over or how many of the 54 million actually took
advantage of the changes. The final result is not out yet, but Obama used the
figure anyway.

Romney: Obama’s health
care plan “puts in place an unelected board that’s going to tell people ultimately
what kind of treatments they can have. I don't like that idea.”

He simply rehashed an old Republican
chant that government would be telling your doctor what to do replacing the
current Republican favored system where the insurance company tells your doctor
what to do or not do.

The Independent Payment Advisory Board
that Romney’s referring to is made up of medical experts that will monitor
rising medical costs and if it reaches an uncontrolled spiraling limit, if
Congress refuses to act, then the experts composed of doctors could intervene
and halt the progression of costs as opposed to the rate of inflation.

The board explicitly and I do mean it is
explicitly prohibited under the new healthcare law that the board have no power
to dictate to patient’s doctors. In addition the board cannot ration
healthcare, shift costs to patients, restrict benefits or raise the Medicare
eligibility age. Healthcare inflation
has been modest as of late (the last three years) and it is highly unlikely
that the board would have to intervene for the next decade.

Romney:When Obama
said, “The average middleclass family with children would pay about $2,000 more
[under Romney’s tax plan]. Now, that’s not my analysis; that’s the analysis of
economists who have looked at this.” In response, Romney replied, “Now, you
cite a study. There are six other studies that looked at the study you describe
and say it's completely wrong.”

Romney has pointed out these studies
before, but would never confess which studies they were. We now have a good
idea and they are not reliable studies. Three aren’t even economic studies, but
come from editorial opinion pieces in the Wall Street Journal and further, are
not academic in nature and have overlapping authorship. One other is even a piece
paid for by ‘Romney for President Inc.’ to come up with a favorable scenario.
For the final two, one is an actual study by Harvard economist, Martin
Feldstein who even confesses to make Romney’s math work, deductions down to
$100,000 income would have to be eliminated. The last one is a study by
Princeton University’s economist, Harvey Rosen agreeing that Romney’s plan is
plausible, but is picked apart by other leading economists because it is
littered with asserted nuances lacking specifics.

In fact, five of these studies or
opinions prove that Romney would indeed have to raise taxes on the middleclass
under his plan. Romney has no supportive academic study, only a few independent
conservative economists’ opinion. Of course if elected Romney is banking on his
campaign promise to be all forgotten once he does begin taxing the middleclass
to pay for the wealthy tax breaks.

The study Obama is referring to is the
‘Policy Tax Center’ who stands by their data that Romney’s tax plan would cost
the country $4.8 trillion over the next ten years.

I’d like to add two sappy conclusions
here by FactCheck.org. and CNNs John Berman who outlandishly conclude Obama is
wrong here simply because Romney tells us so. These are for the ridiculous and
absurd conclusion filings.

FactCheck.org said, “Obama accused
Romney of proposing a $5 trillion tax cut. Not true! Romney proposes to offset his rate cuts and promises he won’t add to the deficit.”

Berman stated, “Romney said he would
offset that by closing loopholes and reducing reductions. So if you take him at his word, our verdict [on
Obama's claim] that Mitt Romney would cut taxes on the wealthy by $5 trillion,
the verdict is false.”

Anyone can claim anything, but it surely
doesn’t make it so.

Romney: “The president
said he’d cut the debt in half. Unfortunately he doubled it.”

Point blank, according to the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) the deficit Obama inherited from Bush was
$1.4 trillion. The CBO projects the deficit to be $1.1 trillion for fiscal year
2012. Hardly double, when actually under these economic strained times, the
deficit is below what he inherited.

Romney: “First of all,
the Department of Energy has said the tax break for oil companies is $2.8
billion a year. And in one year, you provided $90 billion in breaks to the
green energy world. Now, I like green energy as well, but that’s about 50 years’
worth of what oil and gas receives. You put $90 billion into green jobs. And I…look,
I’m all in favor of green energy. And these businesses, many of them have gone
out of business, I think about half of them, of the ones have been invested in
have gone out of business.”

Well dig me a few fishin’ worms, an
awful lot to point out here in this compilation. First off, Romney is no friend
to green renewable energies. With candid Romney statements that renewable
energy is “pie in the sky,” “unreliable,” “electric cars are fantasy” and that
green jobs are “fake” and “illusory;” I don’t think that he quite looks too
kindly to anything green.

Romney stating that the DOE has
said that tax breaks amount to only $2.8 billion a year was his biggest
thieving lie of the night. Oil, gas, coal and the nuclear industries receive
well over three-quarters of all energy subsidies allowances amounting to $300
billion per year as reported by the trans-partisan ‘Left-Right Coalition’
composed of leaders on both sides of the aisle.

Concerning the $90 billion Romney keeps
referring to is not a tax break or subsidy as he constantly portrays it as. It
is the total amount for loan grants to ‘clean energy’ companies, state and
local governments and utility companies. It is administered solely by the DOE with
tax incentives and subsidy interests. President Obama has no final say in who
the DOE granted loans go to, so sorry Romney, Obama did not ensure his cronies
got loans.Amounts have been loaned out systematically where there is still $65
billion left. Lichfield Hills Research gave a clean bill of health on how the
DOE was loaning out the money, but with the Republican’s incessant attacks on
Solyndra and renewable energies in general, one would think the program is in
total chaos.

The loans have been spread out widely
and out of the $25 billion loaned out so far, $11 billion went to energy
efficiency subsidiaries (including Ryan’s district), $5 billion went to
cleaning up old nuclear weapons sites, $4 billion has gone to updating and
renovating the electrical grid, another $2 billion went to research and
development, while $3 billion went to carbon capture and storage making coal usage cleaner; one item Romney supposedly supports.

Finally, as far as those companies that
have gone belly-up after receiving DOE clean energy loans, as of the end of
2011, the number of business failings is a mere 1.4%, and definitely not the
over half as portrayed in the Romney fabrication.

Romney: “At the same
time, regulation can become excessive; It can become out of date. And what’s
happened in — with some of the legislation that’s been passed during the president’s
term, you’ve seen regulation become excessive and it’s hurt the — it’s hurt the
economy. Let me give you an example. Dodd-Frank was passed and it includes
within it a number of provisions that I think have some unintended consequences
that are harmful to the economy. One is it designates a number of banks as too
big to fail, and they’re effectively guaranteed by the federal government. This
is the biggest kiss that’s been given to — to New York banks I’ve ever seen.
This is an enormous boon for them. There’s been 122 community and small banks
have closed since Dodd-Frank. I would repeal it and replace it.”

First off, Romney’s rant that he will
repeal the bill in its entirety; it just ain’t gonna happen. Banks and their
CEOs indeed do like most parts of the law and even Republican Representative
Scott Garrett has a differing frame of mind than Romney. Garrett, a senior
member on the House Financial Services Committee states, “With Dodd-Frank, it’s
not going to be repeal.”

In claiming Obama has been excessive in
regulation, he has not. In fact under Obama, even in having to deal with the
financial crisis, fewer regulations have been enacted under his watch than
implemented under Bush. New regulations under Obama have been smarter with
assurances there will be transparency for those and the existing ones remaining
in place. So you have quality, not quantity.

Romney’s claim that five New York banks
are too big to fail is actually extended under thirty-seven financial
institutions, not five and under that so-called claim of too big to fail, the
banks do not like.

Banks with assets over $50 billion putting
them under the too big to fail category had to submit ‘living wills’ to bank regulators
under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in precisely mapping out
how they would dismantle under receivership of a bankruptcy. In the provisions,
it must be ensured that the thirty-seven institutions name-tagged as too big to
fail have a money pool to cover costs in the event that any one of them indeed
do fail. What this means is that, thanks to Dodd-Frank legislation and the
institutions’ required failure fund, there will not be a lasting taxpayer
burden on the event of a bankruptcy, for the bankruptcy will be absorbed by the
remaining big banks. In the event a bankruptcy could threaten the entire
financial system, now the FDIC has full authority to liquidate that financial
institution before it infects the whole system.

How Romney perceives this as a “boon” to
the big New York banks, only his supposed business mind knows. It actually
creates a more leveraged playing field for all the smaller financial actors.
The bill keeps the bigger banks more honest in the playing field while avoiding
their proneness to take high risks.

Lastly, where Romney gets his kicks in
tying in smaller banks with Dodd-Frank literally shows he is not that so a
professional businessman and if so, then it is as a shady one. There is no
provision, nor connection between community bank failures and Dodd-Frank. Romney
really put a dupe on the American public here. With his background, one would
think he should know better in attempting to slyly tie small bank failures to
Dodd-Frank.

Since enactment of Dodd-Frank, but
before fully provisioned, 188 small banks (with assets less than $1 billion)
have closed, not 122. But after peaking in 2010 at 136, small bank failures are
actually in decline. There were only 86 last year and are down to 42 for the
first nine months of this year.

Romney also attempted to hijack the
middleclass, as if he is the one fighting for them. But go ahead, forget his
past business dealings as a vulture capitalist in shuttering industries,
pensions and jobs, investments in sweat shops and storage of his vast wealth in
foreign offshore accounts. At least the table view 47% video of him secretly
speaking to his rich peers in his own words should at least convince most that
his interests lie elsewhere other than the middleclass. His true mandate is
that if the wealthy are well taken care of, perhaps a few job crumbs will be created
for the middleclass to fight over.

He also tried to hijack the ‘trickle-down
effect’ phrase for wealth distribution when he inserted the Republican favorite
motto ‘big government’ clicks and spouted, “The president has a view very
similar to the view he had when he ran four years ago that a bigger government,
spending more, taxing more, regulating more…if you will, trickle-down
government will work.”

The ‘trickle-down effect,’ no matter how
hard Romney tries to turn the tables, does not work when he applies it to
current government. Our government has actually shrunk in size and is smaller
than it’s ever been in fifty years. The federal government employs 600,000 fewer
employees today than the average for the past fifty years according to ‘Smart
Brief on Business & Politics,’ which includes the military. If every single
one of the 600,000 federal employees were fired today, it would only cut the
budget deficit by one-third.

Big
Bird Homeless:

So, Romney’s magnificent performance in
lying as opposed to Obama’s lackluster and refusal to rebuttal will give Romney
his bump finally in the polls. He needs it for as of late he has been doing
terrible. With this bit of light, I’m sure Republicans are finally going to
gloat, but once the very polls they’ve been criticizing begin to lean towards
Romney, will they still mistrust them…Naw!

It just strikes me as funny though…that political pundits (and myself included) will reward the winner in the debate to the very
one who slung all kinds of lies, misinformation and expect us to swallow it,
while the more mannered and mild one who was much more consistent in relaying
the truth as the loser.

I figure that within a week or so when
we open up the newspapers and actually do see how duped we were by Romney’s
performance, his grandeur will begin to fade, once the truth begins to nestle
back in.

In my opinion, my little brother David came up with a genius concept for the vice presidential debate, or if not then,
save it for the next presidential one. Brother Dave’s idea is when Biden and
Ryan commence their debate, right off the bat, Biden state to Ryan:

“Ya know, you and Romney in your stump
speeches and on TV have always alluded to the fact you have no time or it is
too long to give detail in describing how ya’ll would enact new tax codes,
balance the budget or fix Medicare and Social Security. I tell ya what Mr.
Ryan, right here and right now I’m going to donate my time to yours so you can
finally get the time to actually explain the specifics. The American people
want to know what exactly your plan entails. So as of right now the ninety
minutes and the floor are yours.” Then Biden just stands back and waits to
listen to Ryan’s reply with the rest of us.

There would be none. Ryan would be cold
cocked with jaw agape. What could he say? If he doesn’t take blessings from the time
advantage allotted by Biden to explain, then he’ll be perceived as secretive
and sneaky. But if he does, then the average American would realize he and Romney
do intend to take away our programs and dip into our pockets in their support
of the rich.

It’s not just Romney’s 47% of the people
he doesn’t care about; Ryan too has been caught on video. His claim is the same
as Romney’s, just at a different percent.

At ‘The American Spectator’s 2011
Robert L. Bartley Gala dinner party, Ryan was caught on tape proclaiming, “Seventy
percent of Americans want the American dream. They believe in the American
idea. Only 30 percent want the welfare state. Before too long, we could become
a society where the net majority of Americans are takers, not makers.”

The just released September jobs report
shows for the first time since the Great Recession’s beginning, unemployment
dropped below 8% at 7.8%. Romney at every step he could take has been hammering
away at the fact that ever since Obama has been in office the unemployment rate
has hovered above 8%. I wonder what he will personally say now. I know what the
rest of Republicans will say for they’re already screaming “conspiracy.”

Former General Electric CEO, Jack Welch, who is
a staunch Republican, in reference to the site of the Obama campaign
headquarters tweeted, “Unbelievable jobs numbers…these Chicago guys will do
anything…can't debate so change numbers.”

Now in my thinking, I would wonder why a
CEO of a large corporation would think the jobs numbers are related to a
conspiracy. Has he and other like CEOs been withholding employment to intentionally
keep unemployment above 8%? Something he would know right? That could be plausible
grounds for a reverse conspiracy to take effect. Anyway, along with Allen West
and other GOP politicians they’re out there crying conspiracy.

The thing is staffers at the Labor
Department always work under tight scrutiny and the White House of any
presidency cannot insert its input or persuasion. Former commissioner of the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, who was appointed by Bush states emphatically, “These
numbers are very trustworthy.” There ya have it, so much or so little for yet another
Republican rant on government conspiracy cover-up under this president.

Yes, Romney through his crafty delivery
slipped in many a false caveats, while Obama appeared dull. In knocking out reality, Romney is clearly the winner. But individuals
viewed the debate differently. Some preferred Obama’s approach, insisting he
was the more restrained and dignified one. A couple of examples in how people
expressed a differing viewpoint on the debate are as follows:

I am apparently one of few who thought
our President handled himself well during the first debate. Obama continues to
surprise me by taking the right tact for every situation. I didn't think it was
possible - but here he is, drawing out his opposition - with the skill and
patience of an old timer. Did he hear what he was listening for? Yes, and his
points will corral the rhetoric soon enough.

Normally I could care less about
politics, and politicians, but Mr. Obama continues to surprise me in new and
slightly amusing ways. I may or may not get up to vote for him because I still
think voting the way it is done today is akin to being a ringer in a snake oil
show. Yet, Obama gets my vote today, as the better man.

Clinton Ford 10/04/2012

*****

My daughter called me after the debate,
to tell me she thought it was clear that Obama was actually answering questions
and providing explanations, and Romney was misrepresenting, but with confident
gestures and smiles. She said Obama was more toned-down, but more truthful and
courteous, which she considered better. So she was distressed that pundits were
saying Romney “won”. I pointed out how much of our mainstream media is now
owned or controlled by Romney supporters, and that the truth will come out.
Then I watched the debate on YouTube (sans commercials and spouting pundits).
And I agree. I think Obama did fine.

I am currently about halfway through
reading his book “Dreams of My Father”. I am impressed and feel better about
him due to what he has written. I recommend it.

Sabira Woolley (10/04/2012)

Actually Romney’s attack on Big Bird has
caught fire with the little ones all across America. They don’t like it. My
seven-year-old daughter, Paige had to require further explaining that irregardless
of Romney, Big Bird is still going to be around, after all he can’t fly away.
My nine-year-old daughter, Claire insists that she should be able to vote to be sure
Romney doesn’t win. Both girls also noted how Romney kept batting his eyes and
tongue smacking his lips. Once I took note, indeed he was. I don’t know, in not
being a body gesture and mannerism expert, but maybe that’s what liars do when
they’re dishing out all their tainted baloney and expecting you to swallow it.
Just figuring that’s all…

PBS, known more by its initials than the
‘Public Broadcasting Service’ name is endowed indirectly with federal dollars
by ‘Corporation for Public Broadcasting’ (CPB) that was instituted in 1967. Its
conception was to promote education and facts in the arts, sciences, humanities
and political results. Ever since its inception under a Democrat president,
Republicans have been bashing it in thinking it is too liberal in that it
reports hard facts on sensitive political matters and the sciences. Republicans don’t like being revealed
and under Reagan, he managed to reduce funding, but not its survival. Now, with
a possible Romney presidency, Republicans see a chance under the guise of
balancing the budget, of totally killing off PBS.

Sesame Street including Big Bird is only
$4 million in CPBs budget. That is less than ~.001% of the federal budget. CPBs total budget is only .012% of the federal budget. It
is hardly worth the effort in making Big Bird unemployed. Nonetheless, maybe we
can learn from the little ones in what we want protected and how to mobilize
around it.

About Me

Entered the world as Bruce John Anderson. With a dad as Bruce and two John dangrads (grandpas), grandma thought it too confusing, hence the nickname B.J. I've had ever since I was six months old; yet some folks refer to me as simply...The Beej.

Born in Stephenville, Texas on the Sunday morn of 11/09/52 and while growing up in the Fort Worth area, I have a West Texas flair about perception in life. Currently, I’m a misplaced Texan residing in NW Pa. and that is OK, for one Texan is about equal odds to one Yankee state. This ol' Texan does indeed love the snow up here. Snow is about the only thing I know of that can even make a junkyard look pretty.

Graduated: Trinity HS (Euless, TX) in ‘71 and later from The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in ‘84 with a Bachelors in geology.

Had my first set of children Amber (1971) & Jason (1974) as a young man and my second set Claire (2003) & Paige (2005) I had as an old man. Am married to sweetness in Veronica my wife.

I extol the science disciplines working as a microbiologist, geophysicist, chemist & geologist.

Work has taken me into 39 countries. It’s amazing witnessing firsthand the varying cultures and environs, but prefer the myriad similarities; the old man sitting on a tree stump in front of his central Sudan mud hut was the same old man sitting in his favorite rocker on a West Texas front porch; both just sitting back watching the world go by while pondering it all.

My motto in life is don't take it so seriously, it's not like it's permanent.